Google’s Next Big Project: Battling Heart Disease

Google’s recently spun off research group, Google Life Sciences, is joining forces with the American Heart Association to discover new ways of fighting heart disease. The venture is a $50 million project, an even split from both associations.

The heart association’s half, $25 million over five years, is the largest single research investment in its history. For Google, this is yet another atypical investment for the Internet moguls, joining projects that include driverless cars, contact lenses that monitor blood-sugar for diabetics and health-tracking wristbands.

Heart disease is the world’s top killer, a problem that “seems ripe for new innovation and disruptive, unconventional thinking,” said Andy Conrad, Google Life Sciences’ chief executive. Google not only has the cash, but the tech tools to help the venture; sensors to monitor the health of “people in the wild” versus just when they go to doctors and huge capabilities for data analysis.

In classic Google fashion, they aren’t just looking for minor, temporary solutions to the problem – heart disease – they’re looking for cures, said Conrad.